1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an automated parking garage, automated guided vehicles for moving trays with or without the passenger vehicles thereon and a method for operating such a garage. The invention also relates to an automated self-storage facility, a combination of parking and self-storage facility and a method for operating such a facility.
2. Description of the Related Art
Urban areas throughout the world continue to grow in size and population density, and the number of vehicles in an urban area varies directly with the population size and density. As a result, parking availability is a major problem in most urban areas.
Vehicle lift devices have been used in parking lots for decades to increase the number of vehicles that can be parked in a given area. More particularly, a vehicle lift device has one or more platforms that can receive a vehicle. The lift device then elevates the vehicle on the platform so that at least one additional vehicle can be parked under the platform. Vehicle lift devices that can park four or more vehicles in a vertical array are fairly common. Lift devices of this general type are available from Park Plus, Inc. and are disclosed in the patent literature. Parking lots that rely upon vehicle lift devices require considerable room for the vehicle owner and/or the parking lot operator to maneuver vehicles from the entrance of the facility to the appropriate vehicle lift device. Most parking lots and parking garages that rely upon this technology do not have automated systems for locating the vehicle or for organizing the stacked arrangement of vehicles. As a result, a significant amount of maneuvering is required to park or retrieve a vehicle. These parking systems tend to be very labor intensive and create the potential for minor accidents as the vehicles are being maneuvered.
Parking garages can extend several stories high, and therefore permit a larger number of vehicles to be parked with in a given geographic footprint. However, a conventional parking garage requires considerable space for vehicle maneuvering. The above-described vehicle lift devices can be employed in a parking garage to increase the number of vehicles that can be accommodated. However, few parking garages will permit more than two vehicles to be stacked vertically on any floor of the parking garage.
Some parking systems include complex mechanisms to move a vehicle through an array of X, Y, Z coordinates from an ingress location to a parking location. These systems subsequently retrieve the parked vehicle and return the retrieved vehicle to an egress location. Most of these existing systems use technology that has been available in automated warehouses for decades. In particular, the typical automated parking system of this type requires the vehicle to be driven into a carrier that has a rectangular platform, four corner stanchions extending up from the respective corners of the platform and horizontal top supports that connect upper ends of the stanchions. The vehicle is driven onto the platform of the carrier and the carrier then is moved through a specified array of X, Y, Z coordinates to a particular parking location. The vehicle stays with the three-dimensional carrier for the duration of the parking. The carrier then is moved through a comparable array of X, Y, Z coordinates when the vehicle is to be retrieved so that the carrier with the vehicle thereon can be returned to an egress location where the vehicle is accessed by the driver. Carriers of this type occupy a large volume of space even when the carrier is not being used. These large carriers ideally should remain close to the entrance location of the automated parking facility so that empty carriers can be made available at the entry location to receive and process an incoming vehicle without a long wait time. As a result, the maneuvering of the carriers in a system of this type can be extremely complicated. Additionally, the mechanical systems that move the carriers through the X, Y, Z coordinates can be very complicated and inefficient.
Co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/724,718 discloses an automated parking system with a parking structure or location that has at least one level, and typically plural levels or floors. The parking structure has at least one bay for ingress and/or egress of vehicles. At least one vertically reciprocating conveyor (VRC) is provided for moving vehicles between the access point and a parking floor in the parking structure. The system also includes a plurality of stackable trays, each of which can accommodate a vehicle thereon. The system further includes at least one automated guided vehicle (AGV) that can transport at least one tray within the parking structure with or without a vehicle thereon. The various floors of the parking structure may be provided with means for guiding the automated guided vehicles around the particular floor between the VRC and the respective parking locations. For example, barcodes, RFID tags, lasers and/or guide wires may be attached to or embedded in the floor, ceiling, walls, pillars or the like.
The parking system disclosed in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/724,718 has many desirable features. However, barcodes applied at selected locations around the various floors of the parking structure can become obscured by dirt, debris or the like. Systems that rely upon lasers and/or guide wires embedded in the floor or ceiling are costly to install and difficult to change. Guide wires attached to the surface of the floor can be reconfigured without excessive cost, but are easily damaged by vehicles.
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide an accurate system for guiding vehicles in an automated parking facility where the guiding system is not affected by accumulated dirt or debris and is not likely to be damaged by contact with a vehicle.
Another object of the invention is to provide an automated parking system that can achieve more efficient maneuvering of vehicles.